Sunday, June 13, 2010

Business to Government: Get Out of Dodge

Unemployment remains in the vicinity of 10%. In the opinion of everybody, that is too high.

But consider this: the ranks of the unemployed are now swelled by a group of people who, in former times, were not looking for work, because they didn't have to work - they were retired. This time around, they want to be retired, but they're looking for work because their nest eggs have been savaged. These folks are Baby Boomers - and there's a lot of them.

Baby Boomers are a bubble all to themselves. They're now reaching retirement age, but they are staying in the job market and clogging it up, and a lot of them are not finding work. They're making that unemployment number higher than it would otherwise be.

The question is, why are these people unable to find work? Because businesses are not hiring. Business collectively has a staggering amount of capital laid up. They have the wherewithal to hire us right out of this recession, but they're not doing it because they are fretting that the Government is not subsidizing them further in the process.

Business wants the Government to give them all the money, with no strings attached, before they will start.

The message from Business: No more trickle-down until the Government leaves town.